Experts have identified the Yunnan province of China as the birthplace of tea, and the earliest record of it describes the drink as a medicinal concoction used in the 3rd century during the Shang dynasty. From China, tea-drinking was spread to Vietnam, Korea and Japan.

In the 1500s, traders and Portuguese priests in China came to love the drink, and by the 17th century, the drink gained a following in Britain. To create a source of this drink other than China, the British brought tea to India where it was planted. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Drink that Launched a Thousand Ships

Everyone has heard the expressions, “Not for all the tea in China!”, “Not my cup of tea!”, and “tempest in a teapot”. However, beyond spawning idiomatic expressions and figures of speech, tea was a central figure in many events throughout history. Among the first of these events were the First Opium War (1839–1842) and the Second Opium War (1856 -1860). [Read more…]